Tea bowls in the Oribe style were often shaped something like ancient clogs and described as kutsugata, or "clog-shaped." After a round tea bowl had been formed on the wheel, it was indented in several places, destroying the circular shape and producing an asymmetrical form. The exterior surface of the bowl was then worked with a spatula to make it rough and uneven. Flamboyant distortions and irregularities of this type characterize the aesthetics of Oribe ware.This tea bowl's vital, organic-seeming form is paired with vigorous surface design. The rich iron-black glaze that covers most of the bowl frames the patterns in the white areas. Inside the bowl, each diamond-shaped compartment of the grid is filled with either the representational depiction of a flower or a stylized motif resembling a plum blossom (five dots encircling a sixth). On the exterior, various geometric patterns are boldly depicted in forceful black wash. Oribe ware that is mostly glazed in iron black and carries designs in black on the reserved white ground, such as this tea bowl, is called Black Oribe (kuro-oribe); Oribe ware that is entirely glazed in iron black is known as Oribe Black (oribeguro).

Exhibition History

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japanese Art from the Gerry Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 15, 1989–June 29, 1990.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Tea Ceremony Wares of Mino: Shino and Oribe," 1992.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art in Early Japan," 1999–2000.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth-Century Japan," October 21, 2003–January 11, 2004.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Animals, Birds, Insects, and Marine Life in Japanese Art," June 26, 2008–November 30, 2008.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Beautiful Country: Yamato-e in Japanese Art," November 20, 2010–June 5, 2011.